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Ornithosmilidae
The Ornithosmilids '''(Ornithosmilids meaning '''Bladed Birds) are an group of adaptable, and very derived aliens that are largely colorful, capable of flight and have a rather bizarre feeding apparatus. They might remind you of animals such as pterosaurs or birds due to their wing structure and filamentous bodies. however even their wing structure is very unique, due to their wings being made up by three of their four original limbs. Description They are front-limb bipedal due to their forelimbs being the only ones that are articulated. Normally balancing their body with their long tails and with their smaller wings aiding in stability. This animals use quad launching to launch themselves into the air, they do this with their very muscular arms. They also tend to walk and run around with those same arms. They also tend to rest and use their other limbs as almost a sort of feet for crawling around. These organisms are largely similar to most wallacian fauna. They have a mostly cartilage endoskeleton that supports most of their body now. However, their head area and the second pair of limbs that now have become the main wings have greatly ossified and are composed mostly of bone. They have mostly replaced their ossified exoskeleton with a feathery/furry covering. The exterior bone exoskeleton has mostly disappeared, with only the “beak” remaining. Likely for thermoregulation, but this adaptation has largely made them more light weight which is essential for an organism that needs to fly. Their ancestral compound eyes have also changed to become extremely mantis-like. With many tiny lenses that help these animals see with great accuracy. Their color vision has also increased since their mostly aquatic origins, which mostly explains why these animals tend to look so colorful, with color being a big factor on sexual displays. These aliens mostly have a generalist diet. Most preferring flesh to plant matter in any case, with their big “harpoons” being a great aid when hunting. However, they have been seen manipulating plant matter, carrion and other things with their mouth parts. Functioning really well as manipulators. The ornithosmilids have only retained one of the multiple nostrils/gills of their ancestors. These nostrils seemingly on the neck area of the creature actually is found between the first and second pair of limbs. But the first pair have been so reduced on this group that they are merely boney rods that form the base for a large pouch where the ornithosmilids hide their extendible proboscis. Confusing ancestry and evolution If you watch an ornithosmilid, it would be easy to assume that they are related to most other terrestrial fauna of Wallace II. With them being completely terrestrial and not only that, they are largely volant, it was generally assumed they belonged to the Ambulospeculida group. Until very recently it has been found out, thanks to genetic studies, that the whole family of Ornithosmilids is much more related to the Gomphiobia group, which is a largely if not a wholly aquatic lineage.These studies are still up for debate, with contamination of the DNA samples being a possibility as to why they have such a different ancestry. The Ornithosmilids themselves actually do have some similarities with the rest of Gomphiobia, like them still retaining an ancestral tail fluke, head fin and even the back fin that are now used mostly as display structures.Even the “beak” of the Ornithosmilids has some similarities to the ancestral Gomphiobia. If this is true, this means that on Wallace II there were multiple terrestrial colonizations, with one started by the Ambulospeculida group and another by a variant of the Gomphiobia group. In any case, the adaptation for flight has completely changed the anatomy of these animals. Distribution Another characteristic of these aliens is that they are largely widespread around Wallace II. Their flying capability likely aiding them on colonizing all over the world. Another advantage they have is that they are largely generalists and opportunistic. However, these organisms have largely kept themselves on the more tropical parts of the planet with very few species going towards the poles. This trend of them not going towards the poles is likely due to their large fleshy crests, and long tails, which easily get frostbite when they get near the polar regions. Reproduction and social behavior These organisms can be very sexually dimorphic, with males generally being the more colorful ones. Their feather like filaments aid them greatly at becoming sexually pleasing due to their filaments being capable to absorb a ton of pigments either from their diet or wholly made inside of their bodies. Most ornithosmilids tend to make structured filaments to have iridescent or seemingly color changing coloration. These animals once mated, create an egg sac that attaches itself in front of the cloaca, generally small enough to not be a burden for the parent. This egg sacs will, depending on the species, attached themselves to either the male or females. Once hatched, the hatch-lings which tend to be a total copy of the adults will fend for themselves completely. They are able to fly by the first day of their life and they are wholly independent once hatched. The parents don’t show any child protecting behavior, though instinctively they won’t eat their offspring on the first days they have hatched. However, once a hatch-ling has hatched, it will likely fly away with the parent never seeing their baby again. Child mortality is high, but child births are also high with parents having from 5 to 15 offspring from a single egg sac. These means that at least one of the many hatch-lings will survive. Strangely enough, even if they are not great parents, they are very social animals. With large gregarious gatherings of these animals living together, and both males and females being very promiscuous. Its common to see this animals living together on communal nests, either on large flora or on cliff edges. This gatherings commonly have only adults with them, since young-lings seemingly disappear into the jungle in large "gangs" and return a few months afterwards when they have passed through a teenage phase. Its unlikely a teenage ornithosmilid can mate immediately. Most species don't even develop adult coloring until after 6 months of growth. Most members are sexually developed long before actual coloring takes place. But this teenage ornithosmilids know almost nothing about mating dances and showing off their still dull crests. During this stage in life, getting accepted by their more colorful brethren its a hard task. Many die without a gathering to live with, and many more get injured trying to mate with bigger individuals who don't want anything to do with the dull teens. Once they start developing their adult coloring, its much more likely for the adults in the gatherings to actually accept the new ornithosmilid. This behavior likely originated from simply not recognizing most of the teenage animals as their own species. The Exception: The polar saw-birb Very few ornthosmilids live far north. They are just not adapted to living at such high latitudes. If an ornithosmilid lives near the polar regions, its likely that they live there temporarily. The polar saw-birb is exception to this rule. It mainly lives at more temperate places, but it tends to go to really cold polar regions on certain times of the year. It also lives on areas where in the more warm months its largely snowless and in winter it turns into a frosty tundra land. Their white covering normally quite noticeable on the more temperate times of the year serves as camouflage once the colder months arrive. There they tend to enter a state of hibernation. Once spring starts they will wake up, mate and start living their lives in their large communities. Its a common sight to see a lot of this white little birbs around together during spring, summer and fall and seemingly disappearing at mid winter. ''Future'' This group still has a lot of future ahead of it. With them seemingly being at a state in their flying evolution where they haven't lost their tail, that's likely going to be the next evolutionary step this group is going to take. They might end up being as successful as birds, bats and pterosaurs were on earth, or maybe they will end up going extinct do to competition with other developed fliers. Only time will tell. Category:Gomphiobia Category:Dispeculata